Global chemical giant Ineos Ltd. has approached a deal to invest $ 800 million (5.6 billion yuan) in a new plant in China, suggesting that multinationals remain optimistic about China's economic prospects.
Founded in 1998, London-based Ineos is one of the world's largest chemical producers and is majority-owned by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe.
A chemical plant at Ineos
It is reported that a subsidiary of Ineos plans to build a wholly-owned factory in the coastal city of Ningbo, China, to produce the plastic plastic acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is ABS plastic. This material is commonly used on Lego bricks, cell phone cases, and home appliances.
Last year, Ineos acquired two polystyrene plants in China from French energy giant Total SA, one of which is adjacent to the planned new plant. The new plant will be the first independent construction of Ineos in China.
According to people familiar with the matter, construction of the plant is scheduled to begin this year and be completed in 2023. Ineos' two factories in Ningbo can generate $ 1.5 billion in annual revenue, and most of the materials it produces will be targeted at the Chinese domestic market.
It is worth mentioning that Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, has a large petrochemical development center.
For the above exposure, Ineos declined to comment. The company is a non-listed company that produces a range of petroleum and chemical products, has production bases in 26 countries, and had sales of $ 60 billion in 2018.
The Wall Street Journal believes that although China's economic growth has slowed down and trade frictions have put pressure on some export-oriented manufacturers, China's middle class is growing stronger, ranging from electronics to toys in the next few years. Consumer spending on goods is likely to continue to climb.
The report pointed out that in recent months, Chinese officials have once again taken action to attract more multinational companies to China, not only relaxing ownership restrictions in industries such as automobile manufacturing and financial services, but also promising to relax market access to multinational companies to further open up to foreign investment. Chinese market.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce of China, the total foreign direct investment from January to November 2019 was US $ 124.4 billion. This number increased by 2.6% over the same period last year.
What is more noticeable is that German chemical giant BASF said last year that it would invest $ 10 billion in a wholly-owned petrochemical complex in Guangdong Province in about 10 years.
In addition, Tesla Inc., a U.S. electric vehicle company, recently delivered the first batch of electric cars made in China from its new $ 5 billion Shanghai plant and stated that it aims to produce 1,000 cars per week, and The ultimate plan is to produce as many as 500,000 cars per year in China.